On Media

MSNBC's Ed Schultz will return to weekdays later this month after a brief hiatus as weekend host, signalling a reversal of fortunes for the bombastic television personality who has become a champion to union workers and blue-collar liberals.

Starting Aug. 26, "The Ed Show" will air weeknights in the 5 p.m. slot currently held by "Hardball" with Chris Matthews. "Hardball," which airs live at 5 p.m. and runs again at 7 p.m., will now air exclusively in the latter time slot.

“Chris Matthews and the ‘Hardball’ team have been pulling double duty for years. This move will concentrate the 'Hardball' audience to one key time period and enhance the flow of our evening programming,” Griffin said in a statement. “Ed Schultz is a force of nature and an important voice to the MSNBC audience. I can’t wait to have him back on weeknights.”

Schultz, who formerly hosted the network's coveted 8 p.m. weeknight spot, announced in March that he would be moving to a two-hour slot on Saturday and Sunday evenings — a move that seemed to signal the decline of his television career. He was replaced by Chris Hayes, a rising star on the wonkier side of the liberal spectrum who has failed to gain traction in the ratings race.

The decision to replace a union champion with a bookish young Brown graduate was seen at the time as a logical step for a cable network trying to appeal to a younger, savvier set of progressives. But the decision angered many older, blue collar liberals — indeed, we here at On Media received more angry emails regarding Schultz's ouster than we have ever received on a revolving-door story.

MSNBC's evening lineup will now return to a mishmash of two different kinds of liberals who, though united behind a progressive agenda, do not always see eye to eye on aesthetics. Schultz's base sees the Maddow-Hayes set as elitist, obsessed with data and detached from the concerns of the common man. To the Maddow-Hayes set, Schultz can come off as crude and aggressive, a sort of Limbaugh of the left.

At least you can credit Griffin with trying to keep his bases covered.